Deuteronomy 16:15
Ver. 15. Seven days shalt thou keep a solemn feast unto the Lord thy God,.... The feast of tabernacles still spoken of:
in the place which the Lord thy God shall choose: the city of Jerusalem:because the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all thy increase, and in all the works of thine hands; both in the increase of their fields, vineyards, and oliveyards, and also in their several handicraft trades and occupations they were employed in; so Aben Ezra interprets all the works of their hands of merchandise and manufactories:therefore thou shalt surely rejoice; extremely, heartily, and sincerely, and not fail to express joy on this occasion, and manifest it by a generous freewill offering to the Lord, and a bountiful entertainment for himself, his family, friends, and others. Deuteronomy 16:16Ver. 16. Three times a year shall all thy males appear before the Lord thy God,.... This has been observed before, Ex 23:17, and is repeated here for the sake of mentioning the place where they were to appear, which before now was not observed, and indeed it is chiefly for that the other festivals are here recited:in the place which he shall choose; which though not expressed is now easily understood; and the three times at which they were to appear there were, in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles; or passover, Pentecost, and tabernacles; and of numbers of people going up from the country to each of these feasts, we have instances in the New Testament; to the passover, Lu 2:42, to Pentecost, Ac 2:5, to tabernacles, Joh 7:2,and they shall not appear before the Lord empty; Aben Ezra observes, the meaning is, not empty of the tribute of the freewill offering of their hand, and which Jarchi more fully explains of the burnt offerings of appearance, and of the peace offerings of the Chagigah, or money answerable to them; which, according to the Misnah {q} was a meah of silver for a burnt offering, and two pieces of silver for the Chagigah, which weighed thirty two barley corns {r}{q} Chagigah, c. 1. sect. 2. {r} Maimon. & Bartenora in ib. Deuteronomy 16:17Ver. 17. Every man shall give as he is able,.... The quantity to be given is not fixed in the law, but the wise men appointed it, as observed on De 16:16 but it is left by the Lord to the generosity of the people, only giving this general rule, that they should do according to their ability, and as the Lord had prospered them; see1Co 16:2 so Jarchi,"every man that hath many eatables and much goods shall bring many burnt offerings and many peace offerings.'' Deuteronomy 16:18Ver. 18. Judges and officers shall thou make thee,.... Judges were fixed in the sanhedrim, or court of judicature, and those that have lawsuits come before them; officers are masters of the staff and whip, and they stand before the judges, and go into markets, streets, and shops, to order the weights and measures, and to smite all that do wrong; and all they do is by order of the judges; so Maimonides {s}: the qualifications of judges to be chosen and constituted by the people are thus described by him. In the sanhedrim, greater or lesser, they place only men wise and understanding, expert in the wisdom of the law, and masters of great knowledge, and that know some of the other sciences, as medicine, arithmetic, astronomy, and astrology, the ways of soothsayers, diviners, and wizards, and the vanities of idolatry, that they may know how to judge them; and they set in the sanhedrim only priests, Levites, and Israelites, who are genealogized; nor do they set an old man there, nor an eunuch, nor a king, but an high priest, if he is qualified with wisdom; and they must be free from blemishes, and of a good stature and appearance, and understand many languages, and not hear by an interpreter; and though all this was not precisely required of the sanhedrim of three judges, yet these same things ought to be in everyone of them, wisdom, and meekness, and fear, and hatred of money, and love of truth, and love of men, and to be of a good report {t} and these were to be placed inall thy gates which the Lord thy God giveth thee throughout thy tribes; that is, in every city, as Onkelos, and so Jarchi; and usually the courts of judicature were held in the gates of cities, and it was only in the land of Israel, not without it, that they were obliged to set up courts of judicature, as Maimonides {u} observes; who also asks, how many courts were fixed in Israel, and what the number they consisted of? to which he answers, they fixed at first the great court in the sanctuary, and it was called the great sanhedrim, and its number were seventy one; and again, they set up two courts of twenty three, one at the door of the court, and the other at the door of the mountain of the house (and so in the Misnah) {w}; and they set up in every city in Israel, in which were one hundred and twenty (men or families) or more, a lesser sanhedrim, which sat in the gate, and their number were twenty three judges; in a city in which there were not one hundred and twenty, they placed three judges, for there is no court less than three {x}:and they shall judge the people with just judgment; give a right and just sentence in all cases that come before them, according to the laws of God, and the rules of justice and equity.{s} Hilchot Sanhedrin, c. 1. sect. 1. {t} Ib. c. 2. sect. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. {u} Ib. c. 1. sect. 2. {w} Sanhedrin, c. 10. sect. 2. {x} Ib. sect. 3, 4. Deuteronomy 16:19Ver. 19. Thou shall not wrest judgment,.... Or pervert it, pass a wrong sentence, or act contrary to justice; this is said to the judges as a direction to them, and so what follows:thou shalt not respect persons; so as to give the cause on account of outward circumstances and relations; as in favour of a rich man against a poor man merely for that reason, or of a near relation or intimate friend and acquaintance against a stranger, but justice should be administered without favour or affection to any; as Jarchi puts it, he was to make no difference in his address and behaviour to contending parties before him; he was not to be tender and soft to one and hard to the other, or let one stand and another sit:neither take a gift: as a bribe to give the cause wrong: at Thebes, in Egypt, as Diodorus Siculus {y} relates, in a court on a wall, were images of judges to the number of thirty; in the midst of them was the chief judge; having Truth hanging down from his neck (which seems to be in imitation of the Urim of the high priest of the Jews), his eyes shut, and many books by him; by which image was shown, that judges should receive nothing, and that the chief judge should look to truth only:for a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous; see Ex 23:8 the Jews have a saying, that a judge that takes a bribe, and perverts judgment, does not die of old age, or till his eyes become dim {z}.{y} Bibliothec. l. 1. c. 45. {z} Misn. Peah, c. 8. sect. 9. Deuteronomy 16:20Ver. 20. That which is altogether just shalt thou follow,.... Or "justice", "justice" {a}, strict justice, and nothing else:that thou mayest live and inherit the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee; that is, continue in the possession of it.{a} qdu qdu Deuteronomy 16:21Ver. 21. Thou shall not plant thee a grove of any trees,.... Of any sort of trees, as oaks or any other; not but that it was lawful to plant trees and groves of them, but not for a religious or idolatrous use: particularlynear unto the altar of the Lord thy God, which thou shalt make thee; as the Heathens did near their altars, lest it should be thought to be done for a like superstitious and idolatrous use; which evil the Jews sometimes fell into in the times of wicked reigns, and which their good and pious kings removed and destroyed; see 2Ki 18:4 and Hecataeus {b}, an Heathen historian, relates of the city of Jerusalem, that there were there no image, nor plantation, nor grove, nor any such thing.{b} Apud Euseb. Praepar. Evangel. l. 9. c. 4. p. 408. Deuteronomy 16:22Ver. 22. Neither shalt thou set up any image,.... Graven or molten, of man, beast, fish, or fowl; the word signifies a "statue or pillar" {c} which was set up for idolatry; for, as Aben Ezra observes, what was not set up for idolatry was not forbidden, as when erected in memory of any action or remarkable event; see Jos 22:10, &c.which the Lord thy God hateth; as he does every species, of idolatry, or that has any tendency to it; it being so opposite to his being, perfections, and glory; and therefore nothing should be done like it, because it is so hateful to him.{c} hbum sthlhn, Sept. "statuam", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Tig. vers. Fagius, Drusius, Grotius, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; so Ainsworth.
John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible.